And Push Comes to Shove for New Cascade Events

And in that context you have to ask the question: How do we prepare for second, third, or even fourth and beyond, follow on events that span continents?

Heart breaking as the immediate effects of hunger and homelessness will be, how do prioritize response planning for systematic collateral effects? How do we incentivize both the political and private sector elites to make the hard decisions now that will put in place substantive resources to act across very wide geographical boundaries, within contingencies that may well strain even the most imaginative among us?

You need only look at how California has responded to the recent methane gas disaster to see how officialdom becomes a tragic farce of who can run from responsibility the fastest; with everyone understanding the bottom line notion that, if you move to take charge in fixing it, you end up owning it. A situation that will be even more farcical (if that is even possible) within the sweeps weeks presentation of a Presidential election on our favorite reality TV show: National Government.

And perhaps most depressing of all will be the fact that what we do will be limited mostly by considerations of the counters it will require to make it happen, as well as from who those counters will be taken from. Billions of same will be spent eagerly on election advertising, along with the usual commodities of distraction, while any few millions attempted to be pulled from these grasping hands will be met with great howls of pain and cries of injustice.

If any of this still makes any sense to you then I, for one, can only conclude that you are well and truly a "Trump Chump." And I can only hope that you survive the rude awakening you have fast approaching off the starboard bow.

Sick of El Niño? You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Warns NASA

See Also:

The Storm That Will Unfreeze the North Pole

It caps off a month—and year—of weird weather.

Shelters for the Truly Needy

Isn't it comforting to know that, as thousands of ordinary folks go without a roof over their heads, or much to eat either, these poor dears will have a place to keep their counters safe for generations to come. Whether they work for it or not we need them to keep excess alive and well because Capitalism couldn't survive without it.

For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions

The very richest are able to quietly shape tax policy that will allow them to shield billions in income.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/economy/for-the-wealthiest-private-tax-system-saves-them-billions.html?&_r=0

By NOAM SCHEIBER and PATRICIA COHENDEC. 29, 2015

Smog Doesn't Stop Capitalism from Seeing Profit From Poison

The question you then have to ask yourself is this: Would a pro smog advocacy group emerge to keep it going? Unlikely you say?

Think about it. Cold practicality and profits could come together to work a partnership of pushing face masks, eye protectors, and the undeniable fact that a higher death rate might be more cost effective than getting off coal any time soon. Especially when one considers that the old would be the most vulnerable to lung related diseases. You couple that with a treatment policy of just giving them, say, morphine to keep them comfortable, as well as quiet, and you could have a real consensus builder among the elites; who of course could live elsewhere.

And lest you start getting too smug about something like this not happening hear just remember: the money being spent to keep coal, and fracking, and barely safe operations in a wide range of industries where poison can happen either directly, or indirectly, because of cutting corners.

Microsoft, IBM Eye Big Business Opportunity in China's Air Pollution

by REUTERS

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Whether It Can or Not is Irrelevant

The simple fact of the matter is that we must try to save the planet with all of the passion we can muster. If for no other reason than that we love it, and all of the loving structure it represents. As well as to acknowledge that love right now is the most important act of faith we can collectively participate in.

Can the Planet Be Saved?

Experts on ecology, conservation, and climate change offer their reasons for optimism and pessimism going into 2016.

Two Items From Digg That I Can't Help But Feel are Related

One is an interesting look at why farting as comedy has been harmed by the internet. The other about how the internet help fuel the rise of the "Alt Right."

You needn't think about this very long to come up with why they are related. The outrageous. Hot air. Death, as well as the smell of decomposition, are all at play in both. The conclusion, then, that one has replaced the other is also quite easy to come to.

Super Conductivity at Room Temps Getting Closer

This post from Nautilus is very encouraging. Mikhail Eremets and Alex Drozdov are physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and they have made some impressive strides in getting super conductivity to work at human scale temperatures.

An Obscene Disaster

The question one has to ask about this huge methane gas leak is this: Which is more obscene, the fact that it happened in the first place, or the lack of urgency by all levels of government in doing something about it?

Surly significant amounts could be siphoned off into, say, the rubber bladders the military uses to store and transport fuel in. And at the same time, portable turbines might be brought in to start liquefying as much as possible, burning the methane itself to power the cryogenic process? Even if you just shuttled the bladders to another power plant, or to a desalination plant to offset the power cost of creating potable water, you would be doing some good.

The bottom line here is ought to be that anything diverted from going directly into the atmosphere is better than nothing,

Why Engineers Can’t Stop Los Angeles' Enormous Methane Leak

See Also:

See Also:

LA's Gas Leak Is a Global Disaster